Feluda to the rescue: An indigenous new test holds the promise of accurate but fast detection of Covid

In this pandemic how much testing is enough testing? As the goal is to identify new cases and contain transmission of the virus, testing programmes have to be scaled not just to the size of the population but also the size of the disease spread, both of which are high in India’s case. WHO has found a test positivity rate below 5% for 14 days as indicating that a country is testing enough to bring the pandemic under control. India’s is around 8.5% and the situation is much worse in some states. Test positivity rate in Maharashtra for example is around 20%.

Scaling up testing is imperative. Tests that are both faster and accurate would obviously be a big help in meeting this goal. This is why DCGI giving the nod to the commercial launch of an indigenous test that uses cutting-edge CRISPR gene-editing technology to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus accurately, cheaply and quickly is very promising news. Named Feluda, after the popular private detective created by Satyajit Ray, it is a paper strip test like a pregnancy test. In lab settings it has demonstrated the sensitivity and specificity of RT-PCR tests alongside the ease of antibody tests. If the same holds in clinical settings, scaling up Feluda could prove a game changer.

Even apart from Covid, in a world where data is the new oil, where improving the design and implementation of public policies depends overwhelmingly on official statistics, these are quite deficient in India. All too often quality, quantity and transparency are all suboptimal. The pandemic has just put this problem in spotlight. Last Friday for example India saw a nearly 23% drop in testing over the past two days. But every attempt to paper over the cracks only worsens them. Fixing the problem needs facing up to it.